Egyptian Tombs

Tombs are found in three types:

• The pyramid with its widely known form, symbolizes a stair to the sky, reason for which it rises so high over the floor.

It is made of rock, and practically solid except for the following open spaces:  Funeral room with the mummy in its sarcophagus. Cult room. Halls meant to connect the mentioned rooms or to get you lost... The mastaba is a small trapezoidal monument composed of a funeral room where the sarcophagus is laid, a praying and cult room. The hypogeum, carved in rock, has the same elements as the mastaba but with a different distribution: the funeral room is found under the cult room.

These last two types are tombs reserved to pharaohs. All tombs are decorated with paintings.

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Not all pyramids have the same shape. In Saqqara (first image) for example, one can see stairs.

It is interesting to see how antic forms still inspire modern artists. The first pyramid is Biblos, the most popular disco in Tampico, the second is the crystal pyramide at the Louvre (Paris). Of course, these buildings only have a hood that respects more or less the original shape, yet it is curious to notice that even the Mexican architect adopted this shape instead of any model inherited from some traditional precolombian culture.

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© The pyramid at Saqqara is courtesy from Royce Fromme. 

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